Syllabuses, Files, and Rounders
An Amazing Month for the Education Team To provide educational opportunities to children, especially primary school aged children, and to support the development and utilization of critical educational infrastructure (MDG 2) This last month, we have successfully developed both a syllabus and file system for the two schools we partner with for our education program. This will allow us to properly track and assess the English development of the students that we work with, as well as provide much needed support in paperwork management and systems development support in the schools. Here in India the education program has been rolling right along with teaching as usual. The small group of dedicated volunteers has done an amazing job at continuing to provide quality English lessons to over 100 students. At the same time, we have been working with our partners to move towards improving the student data collection and storage by introducing the use of student files. The school is keen to develop their systems and work alongside our team to help track the progress of
their students, and this will be assisted with the help of our newly developed files and syllabus. Due to several holidays this last month, the education team has been able to spend some extra time working at the base to research and develop not just the much needed files, but also syllabuses. The newly
completed files will be implemented at the schools in order for the teachers to have a quick reference and progress report on the children. The teachers will also be able to see the development of the children’s English lessons with GVI in reflection to the syllabus as well as be able to use the same type of system to individually see the development of the students in their other classes. These tools will also be helpful for the future volunteers to be able to smoothly pick up from where each group -‐ and child – got to with the last volunteer. Our ultimate goal with these files and syllabuses is to ensure the constant development of each child, and allow for the
ability to individually assess for the gaps in their learning. The month of October also brought a buzz of activity to the schools with the continuation of the weekly extracurricular activities that our volunteers put on for the students. In St Louis school, the arts and sports days continue -‐ with a highlight so-‐far being a “mini-‐sports day” of several activities, including shot-‐put, relay races, and rounders. The children and volunteers alike had great fun participating in the events -‐ while the students were developing their listening ability, physical coordination and team building skill. The sports class at Thamaraparambu school is also continuing to develop under their sports coach Shiju. Teaming up with the volunteers, Shiju has brought his expertise to Thambu with many football activates and drills. The students are developing their football skills as well as learning to work together as a team, especially impressive in a group with such varied age and abilities. With the arrival of a larger group of volunteers and the new systems to be put fully in place, next month promises to be very productive and exciting.